Fernando Torres

"This is my team, my city and Anfield is my pitch. I feel very good." - Fernando Torres, speaking about his Liverpool team.

Some people were born to dig small holes, with really big shovels. Others were born to fly airplanes underwater while wearing a top hat. Fernando Torres was born to score goals. The explosive Spanish striker has quickly developed into one of the most prolific goal scorers of his generation while dominating the English Premier League goalscoring charts with Liverpool and winning the European Championship and the World Cup with his native Spain.

In January 2011 the one they call "El Nino" (The Kid) stunned his adoring Liverpool fans by handing in a transfer request following a British club record bid of £35million.

MAGNETISM

Women around the world are mournful of two things. First, that men will never experience the physical pain of childbirth. And second, that Fernando Torres is happily married. The Spanish heartthrob with the boyish good looks has been with his wife Olalla for the better part of a decade. The childhood sweethearts and parents of a beautiful baby girl met when they were just children in Madrid, and have been inseparable ever since. And unlike the vast majority of his colleagues, Fernando Torres isn't going around banging hookers in back alleys every chance he gets. In fact, the Roman numeral VII-VII-MMI tattooed on his left leg represents their first kiss on July 7, 2001. How's that for devotion?

SUCCESS

Upon first glance, it looks as though success on the pitch has come fast and easy for Fernando Torres. But as fans of the game know, succeeding at football's highest level is anything but easy. After becoming the youngest player ever to play for Atletico Madrid, Torres rose through the team's ranks at warp speed, and was named captain at just 19 years old. Though he remained loyal to the meandering club for six years, it wasn't long before the allure of playing for an elite team became too great to ignore. In 2007, a whopping £25 million transfer fee saw Torres join The Premiership's Liverpool, where he's been striking fear into hearts and minds of defenders and keepers ever since. And though he's scored over 50 goals as a Mighty Red, and is widely considered (along with Wayne Rooney) as the league's top striker, Torres' greatest moment came while playing for his country. In the finals of Euro 2008 against Germany, Torres scored the game's only goal, handing his country their first ever major international title and solidifying his place in Spain's eternal folklore. Matadors ain't got nothing on this kid.

Fernando Torres Biography

Let's face it, most kids who dream of one day becoming an astronaut wind up pushing pencils in a bank. Fernando Torres grew up dreaming of one day dawning the jersey of his grandfather's favorite football club, Atletico Madrid. Well, guess what? He did it. Torres joined his first team at age 5 as a goalkeeper, but by age 7 he switched to striker and never looked back. After scoring 55 goals in a season with Rayo 13, Torres earned a tryout with Atletico Madrid, and joined the club in 1995. At just 14 years old, Torres helped Atletico Madrid's Under-15 squad win the Nike Cup, and was named the best player in Europe of that age group. He achieved similar feats at the Under-16 and Under-19 European championships. At this point, the legend of Fernando Torres had reached epic proportions. Fans of Atletico Madrid hadn't just found their next great star -- they had discovered their savior.

fernando torres starts for atletico madrid

In 2001, Fernando Torres achieved a lifelong dream by becoming Atletico Madrid's youngest player ever. For a team that had perennially lived in the shadow of their more glamorous crosstown rivals Real Madrid, Torres represented a caliber of player they were not used to seeing. It was made all the more special by Torres' undying loyalty to the club he had followed since childhood. With that in mind, Atletico Madrid made a 19-year-old Fernando Torres their youngest captain in team history. And though he showed flashes of brilliance throughout his six-year stay with the team, he was never able to lift his club to an elite level, and never quite emerged as the dominant force that most believed he was capable of becoming. After six years of middling results in La Liga, Fernando Torres decided it was time for a change.

fernando torres signs with liverpool

In the summer of 2007, Spain's newest golden boy had officially left La Liga to play in the only other comparable league in the world, England's Premiership. For a fee of around £21.5 million, Fernando Torres was now a Mighty Red, immediately making a statement by taking the No. 9 shirt vacated by Liverpool's legendary Robbie Fowler. And boy did he make an impact. In Torres' first season with Liverpool, he scored 33 goals, eclipsing Ruud van Nistelrooy to become the highest scoring foreign debutant in Premiership history. Since that now legendary season, Torres has maintained a torrid pace, and has established himself as one of the world's elite strikers. Although he has yet to guide Liverpool to any major hardware, he has established himself as one of the top players in the premiership, and is frequently on a mantle with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the best pure scorers in the game.

fernando torres leads spain to the european championship

If the Spanish people were at all bitter that Fernando Torres had left La Liga to play in England, he more than made up for it at Euro 2008. At the 2006 World Cup, Torres finished with three goals for the tournament, so clearly the man knew how to put the ball in the net at the international level. But nothing could prepare Torres for what would transpire at Euro 2008, the world's top tournament after the World Cup. Spain blazed through to the finals where they faced Germany in what was perhaps the most important game in Spain's history. Torres would score the game's only goal, lifting his team to a 1-0 victory and ensuring his country their first major international trophy. He was subsequently named Man of the Match and instantly became a national hero. Now with Spain headed to South Africa as the favorites to win the 2010 World Cup, an entire nation has pinned their hopes to the one they call "El Nino." The question is: Can he deliver?